From: Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com>
Reply-To: apisto@v2.listbox.com
To: apisto@v2.listbox.com
Subject: Re: Corys, otos and ditherfish - yes or no
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 11:58:16 -0600
Nuno,
Let me put my opinion out for you. A 95 gallon tank - properly aquascaped
is certainly adequate for 2 trios of Apistogramma. As long as the fish
cannot see across the entire length of the tank you should have no problem
with agassizii & a macmasteri-group species setting up 2 separate
territories. The two forms are so different that they certainly will not
cross breed.
Pencilfish are ideal community members with apistos. They do not actually
school and their mouths are to small to eat any but the smallest fry.
Hatchetfish, however, will be a problem unless the aquarium is tightly
covered. They will "fly" out of the water if an apisto attacks them. The
Corydoras hastatus are a question. Since they are not actually bottom
dwellers (they tend to school in mid-water levels) it is possible that the
apistos will ignore them.
You write that your water is around 100ppm (<7ºdH), but you don't say if
this is permanent hardness (GH) or carbonate hardness (KH). Depending on
the amount of KH, peat may be able to soften your water sufficiently to
permit aggies & macs to breed. Both species can successfully breed at pH
6.5, GH <100ppm, & KH <50ppm. I do not believe that you will need an R/O
unit for these fish.
Mike Wise
Nuno Prazeres wrote:
Hi!
I am preparing a 95 gal tank (with additional capacity - 30 gal from the
sump) to host two trios of apisto - agassizii + macmasteri complex (do
they share habitats in nature?). The tank will be set up with driftwood,
rocks and plants. The goal is to watch the inter and intraspecific
behaviour of these fish in a quite low stockage environment.
Giving this goal, is it appropriate to use a few small species corys
(hastatus???) and otos as cleaners and typical ditherfish like pencils
and/or hachet fish? Would those fish interfere in the behaviour of the
apistos or they will just contribute to make it more evident as they are
said to work as a sort of assurance there is no predator threat arround?
Another thing...
How acid should the water be?
How hard should it be?
Mine comes from the tap at 100 ppm General Hardness and 7,4 pH which is
not too bad - is a smaller setup a bit peat filtering and CO2 are enough
to get it to pH 6,2 and 60ppm GH.
Should I use peat and/or CO2 or get serious and go straight to RO?
Thanks for any help
Nuno Prazeres
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